I woke up late and could only reach Baramunda Bus Station in Bhubaneswar at 12.30 PM. My Initial plan was going to Berhampur which is located 164 km from Bhubaneswar. But after time-consuming deliberation, I switched my plan and I decided to go to Nayagarh. I before had seen this place from my Orissa State Map at home, and it is nice for me to go to the place other than located around National Highway. Previously I had gone to Cuttack, Badhrak, and Balasore which are located near the National Highway Chennai – Kolkata.

Dropped down from Auto, I then look for the bus for Nayagarh. Unfortunately most of the medium size bus when displayed their direction in Oriya letter. So then I went randomly asking the bus person by mentioning ‘Nayagarh?’. The 2nd bus person I asked said no but he gently pointed the bus to Nayagarh. I am very thankful for that.

It is a pink colored bus and was still empty when. I went up inside and choose the back seat cuz I believe the bus would get crowded during the journey. I sat near the window and here the journey began after the bus waiting for 5 minutes again.

The bus reached Khurda. It is a small city we met after turning right from the National Highway 5, about 5 km from the NH-5 intersection. It was 2.PM at the time and the market was very crowded. The bus stopped for sometimes, and of course passengers came in and came out, left a very bad air in the bus. I tried to enjoy the situation, bought some bananas from a seller…well, some sellers offered their things to the bus passengers from the window.

Along the driving, the bus as my prediction was getting densely as ever. But all I can do is just sit down in my tight seat and cheering the greeny view, the huge rice fields, and the blue mountains faraway. Most of the roads are fine but some parts of it were being fixed.

After 3 hours long journey finally we reached Nayagarh.

After stepping down from the bus, I started the next journey by walking. It was 3.PM and the small city were quite busy, but I think it would be pretty crowded two hours later when the twilight is about to come. Here I was having fun with my camera again.

After treasuring the market, I went walking to another sides of the city. The road is interesting because it is hilly in the left side and residents in the right side. Of course I had no idea about Nayagarh area, but all I wanted to do was keeping my feet walking to stretch the distance. Unfortunately my feet were too tired to continue the walking. If I had my bicycle there..

Yes, I was totally having goosebumps in this journey. Everything was so perfect in my eyes, and I can’t stop pressing the click button on my camera. Going alone means that I can go wherever I want my feet to go. And in Nayagarh there is a special sense since it is located deeply in mountain area and far from the lowlands, the culture still seems traditional. But I had a question why the area is still hot while they have a lot of hills around? In Indonesia, areas like this will be coldly and make our body shivering.

The time keeps ticking and my mobile phone showed 17 PM. I decided to go home and reach the bus station.

In the return journey, unfortunately the bus was very densely. I had no chance to look outside and my seat was not good. But that was an experience, and while the sky was getting darker I knew that it won’t be useful to take some photos. So I could do nothing but enjoyed my seat, had argument with another passengers, bought some crispies and drinks, and that was all.

Living in cities in India perhaps such a worthy challenge. With the people rushing in and out, hectic schedule, party of horns, smells of garbage, bemoaning drivers, pollution, and the cattle..all mixed in one for an incredible experience. One always needs a recovery in the shape of refreshing activities to revitalize the momentum and spirit..

Unfortunately, in my city Bhubaneswar, there is no musical or sport experience which I am very thirsty of. Almost desperate to find anything to comfort myself after three months, I finally decide to adventure this state, Orissa. A thing that I was against to because of the language difference. Means, how can I communicate with the drivers, the ticket sellers, and other people who certainly will be the traditional Indian people who can’t speak English at all. To make matter worse, my first experience going to the bus station, I saw almost all letters are in Odisha, that suddenly I thought I was in another planet for sometime without any clue.

But there it was. My egos of wanting an adventure pushing that language difference issue into nothing. And I enjoyed every traveling I did with bus. A map of Orissa is more than enough to calmly make a schedule of a day’s tripping. I count more than 10 times I went the distance around Orissa districts and villages, from Balasore, Bhadrak, Angul, Berhampur, Puri, Konark, Khurda, Nayagarh…all the places I had gone to without before knowing what are there for seen. I just wanna see them! It is just an adventure..

Apart from the unknown routes and the schedule, I really enjoyed my days during doing these sort of blind journeys. Start from sometimes hitting the already crowded bus, or patiently waiting for 2 hours to have to bus really starting to go with advance getting an empty seat near the window, crushing the muscles of bodies, having no idea about what the bus conductor said (well I just simply gave him Rs100 or Rs 200, depend on how I predict the distance, without knowing exactly how much is the fare), sitting like an alien that know nothing about what people around me are talking, and of course hearing the loud traditional Odisha songs played on the tape recorder.

On top of all that, the most important thing were enjoying the beautiful views from the windows of the bus and carrying my mobile camera and digital camera so I could taking snapshots of every view that I love. I noticed many passengers – who of course come from the low-class society – staring at me maybe thinking I was a stranger because I always taking pictures, but I assume that cases as a part of enjoyment in doing an adventure.

To be honest, in the New Year’s midnight I only slept on my bed. Some hours before, at 08.00 PM I went to the department store to buy daily’s life things. But because of the winter I was just sleeping during the year’s interchange.

The following morning I went to Puri. I enjoyed the beach and all the people were dwelling in the sand and in the market. Seems a good place for celebrating New Year. I bought many things including sea food. I stayed until evening then went back home to Bhubaneswar by train on late evening.

Those are photos I captured from the windy and crowdy beach of Puri, Orissa, East India